Climate Sisters Manchester: Building Feminist Climate Leadership Rooted In Community

A community-led climate justice programme centering women’s leadership in Manchester

By Anisa Saleh, Climate Sisters Project Manager

Climate Sisters Manchester is part of Wen’s national Climate Sisters programme, a women-led community-rooted space for feminist responses to the climate crisis. Working alongside local grassroots organisations, women draw on their lived expertise, creativity and leadership to shape climate action grounded in justice and care.

Phase One: Feminist climate leadership in practice

Looking back on Phase One of the programme, I feel incredibly proud of what we’ve built collectively. Over 10 weeks, we’ve worked alongside women from two grassroots organisations – SAWN (a registered charity/women’s group and a grassroots organisation), and with Women’s Voices, a not-for-profit, grassroots organisation based in Manchester (working with Black, Asian, Minority, Ethnic, and Refugee women, offering a safe space, training, and support to empower them and strengthen their influence in their communities).  

The groups came together toexplore what climate justice means in our lives, our communities and our local contexts. Through joyful connection, creativity and deep reflection, women shaped ideas rooted in community and lived expertise, showing how women’s leadership responds to the climate crisis in relational, local and transformative ways. Some of the themes we explored relating to air pollution, recycling, food waste helped us to better grasp climate justice through an intersectional feminist lens. From the beginning, there was a strong sense of trust, curiosity and collective care in the space we created together.

Together, we’re feeling energised and proud of the community spirit, the momentum for growth, and the early seeds of Climate Sisters leadership taking root across Greater Manchester’s local communities.

Learning trips

A key part of this phase has been slowing down and reconnecting with place. Our first learning trips – to Debdale Park and the Manchester Viaduct, including the MOSS project and a National Trust site – created space for reflection, shared learning and inspiration. These moments outdoors created space for early ideas to emerge around the cohorts’ creative climate responses, while also offering something just as important: rest, connection and inspiration.

Learning alongside also deepened our conversations, grounding the work in questions of movement, belonging and justice. Their perspectives reinforced that climate justice is not only about environmental change, but about storytelling, solidarity and organising for futures where both people and the planet can thrive.

As Phase One came to a close, what stayed with me most was the community spirit that had grown so naturally. I witnessed women stepping into leadership in their own ways, sharing knowledge, building confidence and imagining new possibilities for change rooted in their lived realities. These early seeds of feminist climate leadership feel powerful, illustrating what becomes possible when women lead from where they are.

Climate Sisters’ collage – reflecting climate issues and what is important to them.

Phase Two: creative climate responses and community showcase

Now, phase two is underway, and the energy is shifting into something new. This stage focuses on women developing their creative climate responses more deeply, refining ideas, experimenting with form and bringing their climate visions into expression.

We’re currently moving towards the Phase Two Creative Showcase on Saturday 28 March, where women will share their projects, stories and insights with wider audiences. It feels like a meaningful next step: moving from exploration into expression, and from reflection into action.

Phase One reminded us that climate leadership doesn’t have to look a certain way. It can be slow, relational, joyful and rooted in everyday experience. Phase Two carries that learning forward, as women continue shaping feminist climate leadership rooted in place, care and collective action.  This community of women are exploring creative approaches through facilitated workshops, mentoring, and collaborative sessions that encourage experimentation and collective learning. This phase is about agency and voice, participants are shaping narratives around climate change that reflect their realities, leadership, and visions for change.

We are proud to partner with Manchester Museum, which provides a platform for the women to showcase their work. The showcase will celebrate their creativity and leadership, amplify their perspectives on climate issues, and connect their stories to wider audiences, highlighting the power of women-led climate action.

Find out more about Climate Sisters

Main photo: Climate Sisters SAWN nature focused trip to Manchester Viaduct